Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-10-24
KNIGHTS OF LABOR.
A SecessiOnist Movement
Inaugurated.
THEIR SCATHING CIRCULAR.
A National Labor Conference Ar
ranged for December in
st. Louis.
A Associasea Press Dispatches to the HERALD,

OlilCAGo, OCbODCl hIiooChAti .
from the action taken at the Mime
apolis convention have declared open
war with the Executive Board of the
Knights of Labor and have issued
their declaration OF independence. On
their return from the convention,
about thirty-five delegates, represent
ing thirteen States, stopped in Chicago
and elected provisional committee OF
five members and drafted a strong cir
cular of independence. Chas. II. Lieb
was made secretary of the provisional
committee. Longs communication,
drafted at Secretary Lieb's Office, will
be forwarded tomorrow in circular
form to the Knights of Labor all over
the country. The circular starts out
as follows:
To the rank and file of the Order of
knights of Labor:
Indignant at the usurpation Of
power; gross violation of laws Of the
order by those high in authority :;
disgusted with those whose loyalty
to the present ring has been gained
by pickings they received as reward
for their services; incensed at the
fawning sycophants who crawl on
their knees in slavish submission to
the most corrupt, most hypocritical,
most autocratic and tyranical clique
that has ever controlled any labor or
ganization, we therefore affirm our
motto that when bad men combine
the good must associate, else they
will fall one by one, an unpitied class
in an unequal struggle.
We assert that the hour has come
when, as honest men and women, We
declare ourselves independent Of those
who have abused the confidence re-
posed in them by our order. Our
duty to workingmen and women de-
lnands that we at once reorganize the
order of the Knights OF Labor on the
basis which will secure the autonomy
of trades and the sovereignty of dis
tricts in all pertaining to their trade
and local affairs; and, to prevent it
from being used in the future as
mac inc to fill the Golfers OF
designing and unscrupulous men as it
is now by those in power" The cir
cular then goes on at great length
to give the reasons which have COM
PEELED this serious action on their
part. They charge that the general
office has become luXuriant haunt
for men whose chief aim it is to benefit
their self pecuniarily and otherwise,
and that there had been for more than
one year conspiracy for the purpose
of holding salaried positions in and
under the General Assembly; that
this conspiracy has used secret chan
nels, and funds of the order to manu-
facture sentiment for certain members
and against others that commissions
have been refused to members known
to disagree with the methods of the
ring; that district and local assem-
blies have been suspended or expelled
for opposing the policy of the conspir-
ators that the records of the general
office have been fixed so as to rule out
or to admit, as the case might be,
General Assembly representatives ;
that many thousands of dollars Of the
orders fund have been Illegally ex-
pended, frequently against the earnest
protests of honest, law-abiding mem
bers that members honestly devoted
to the cause of labor have been made
the scape-goats of blundering high
officials and driven in disgrace from
the movement; efforts made by as
semblies to better their condition have
been strangled by the ring; that boy
colts have been used to injure the
I IL VT,,,o,~ ll icl, ,fe,.
the products of the Knights of Labor
and Union labor for the sole purpose
of "downing" the workinSmen and
women who could not be used by the
conspirators; that the constitution has
been altered in an illegal manner, and
measures inimical to the order at
large have been railroaded into law ;
that war has been waged
by the administrative ring
against trades unions in spite of the
orders obligation to extend a helping
hand to all branches of honest labor.
Nearly every important strike or lock-
out in which the general officers we're
interested has been lost AS result
of this laundering stupidity and arbi-
trary policy on the part of the admin
istration, the membership of the order
has decreased 21S,000 members
in one year. In spite OF this
decrease they have increased the
annual expenditures of the general
officers to 100000. In the general
assembly arguments were made by
buncombe and gag law reduced to a
system, outrageous decisions were
rendered, appeals and protests
ignored, and all for the purpose ol
covering up the rascality OF those in
power. The circular requests all local
and district assemblies in accord with
the declaration or desiring information
to address Secretary Lieb.